Homes Selling Before Open House

[Anonymous]

Using Potomac as an example, there were only 22 homes sold last month, with a median 7 days on the market.

https://www.redfin.com/city/25423/MD/Potomac/housing-market

A house sold in 4 days last week, and the open house was cancelled. Buyers lost opportunities to bid, and the seller potentially lost better offers.

I don't get it. Are these houses sold offline, and then belatedly reported as listed and sold? How do buyers even find out about houses before they are gone?

[Anonymous]

Sellers are happy to take offers over asking and cancel their open house. Open houses are a pain in the butt. We asked the seller of our house to cancel the open house last year. We saw it the day they put it on the market and submitted a really good offer that afternoon. They accepted it before our midnight deadline. These are the things you have to do in this market.

Our neighbors home was sold to an all cash buyer before they even put it on the market. The buyers offered 25% above list, it was a no brainer.

[Anonymous]

You have to search for "coming soon" homes. Those homes will be almost sold by the time the listing comes onto the market. They just take offers for the first 48 hours and then accept one of the dozen offers.

[Anonymous]

By the time the open house rolls around houses have been on the market for several days and many of them have had coming soon status as a PP indicated for as long as three weeks. There are also pocket listings where a buyer represented by or known to the listing agent or one of his/her colleagues has known that the listing was coming even before that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Using Potomac as an example, there were only 22 homes sold last month, with a median 7 days on the market.

https://www.redfin.com/city/25423/MD/Potomac/housing-market

A house sold in 4 days last week, and the open house was cancelled. Buyers lost opportunities to bid, and the seller potentially lost better offers.

I don't get it. Are these houses sold offline, and then belatedly reported as listed and sold? How do buyers even find out about houses before they are gone?

I can tell you what my brother did. The minute the listing alert hit his phone he contacted his realtor who galvanized the contractor, inspector and arranged a showing the same afternoon. They submitted a no-contingencies offer the next morning for $200k over asking but the property was underpriced to start with. It was an estate sale, the sellers were satisfied with the price and terms and it went pending immediately.

[Anonymous]

Serious buyers don’t wait for open house.

[Anonymous]

We bought our house before the official listing in 21. It was ‘coming soon’ and our realtor found out that it already had 3 over asking offers on the Sunday before it officially went on the MLS and before the next weekend’s open house. Sellers are Not missing out. Every offer they received was over asking. We offered 5% over, all cash, 11 day close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The minute the listing alert hit his phone he contacted his realtor who ... arranged a showing the same afternoon.

How do I get these phone alerts without signing a contract with a realtor?

This is a weird market. D.C. housing futures were up 13% last year, but down 10% the previous year. With such low volume, the market is not "hot". Instead, it is illiquid because many owners won't sell and give up their low-interest mortgages. Buyers must be very motivated to choose from such small inventory.

When mortgage rates drop, then a bunch of inventory will hit the market. That should be good news for buyers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The minute the listing alert hit his phone he contacted his realtor who ... arranged a showing the same afternoon.

How do I get these phone alerts without signing a contract with a realtor?

This is a weird market. D.C. housing futures were up 13% last year, but down 10% the previous year. With such low volume, the market is not "hot". Instead, it is illiquid because many owners won't sell and give up their low-interest mortgages. Buyers must be very motivated to choose from such small inventory.

When mortgage rates drop, then a bunch of inventory will hit the market. That should be good news for buyers.

Whatever story makes you feel good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The minute the listing alert hit his phone he contacted his realtor who ... arranged a showing the same afternoon.

How do I get these phone alerts without signing a contract with a realtor?

Uhh, Zillow?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The minute the listing alert hit his phone he contacted his realtor who ... arranged a showing the same afternoon.

How do I get these phone alerts without signing a contract with a realtor?

This is a weird market. D.C. housing futures were up 13% last year, but down 10% the previous year. With such low volume, the market is not "hot". Instead, it is illiquid because many owners won't sell and give up their low-interest mortgages. Buyers must be very motivated to choose from such small inventory.

When mortgage rates drop, then a bunch of inventory will hit the market. That should be good news for buyers.

You sound like you don’t actually want to buy a house but instead you want to time the market exactly right. Good luck with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The minute the listing alert hit his phone he contacted his realtor who ... arranged a showing the same afternoon.

How do I get these phone alerts without signing a contract with a realtor?

This is a weird market. D.C. housing futures were up 13% last year, but down 10% the previous year. With such low volume, the market is not "hot". Instead, it is illiquid because many owners won't sell and give up their low-interest mortgages. Buyers must be very motivated to choose from such small inventory.

When mortgage rates drop, then a bunch of inventory will hit the market. That should be good news for buyers.

I bought my house in McLean in 2018, we started looking in 2017, competition was insane in 2017 and every year since. In McLean, Bethesda, Arlington, Potomac, NW DC and pretty much any good school district etc it has always been like this. In 2018 we viewed the property before the open house and made the offer 2 days prior to the open house.

From my understanding this sort of market competition has now moved to rest of the Fairfax and Montgomery county as well. Desirable houses in good school districts will always have bidding wars, I have been seeing this for the last 7 years and I don’t see any signs of a change.

If you are a serious buyer, you need to modify your strategy.

[Anonymous]

Our agent m we about a “coming soon listing” that had many photos on line so after looking at those we arranged to be the very first showing on the date it went “live” at 9am. We wrote contract immediately after by the car and agent presented it within an hour. We offered more than list price, no contingencies and put an expiration on the offer as 9pm that same day. Buyer took it. Open house cancelled

Everyone walked away happy. Was most pleasant and easiest real estate transaction I’ve ever had from offer to close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Serious buyers don’t wait for open house.

+1. This was my (seller's) agent's outlook as well and they killed it. We got a much higher offer than I expected and we took it before open house.

[Anonymous]

The open house is just for the agents and neighbors to schmooze. Anyone serious has already done a showing and done or scheduled a pre-inspection.

I would never take a single early offer if I had a deadline for Monday or Tuesday. I think you do better with escalation clauses.

But if we felt like everyone serious was already in touch with us by Wednesday, which I can believe especially with “coming soon,” I can see why people don’t wait.